For further information related to this release,
contact the Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune Public Affairs Office at (910)
451-7440.

28 May 2006:

The flags of the United States and the U.S.
Marine Corps are at half-staff on the Lucas family flag pole.

The Memorial Day weekend hits hard this year
for the northwest Greensboro couple, who learned Friday that they lost
their son to war.

Marine Lance Corporal Kevin Adam Lucas -- who
went by Adam -- was killed during a battle in Iraq.

A Defense Department press release said he
died "while conducting combat operations against enemy forces."

His parents, Kevin and Sandra Lucas, knew few
more details Saturday afternoon. They knew their 20-year-old son came under
enemy fire and was fatally shot during a security patrol Friday morning.

They knew he would never receive the four care
packages already sent his way. Or drive his "baby" -- a red Dodge 4x4 pickup
parked in their driveway.

But their son was a proud Marine who believed
in his mission, and the couple spread that message Saturday without hesitation.

"Yeah, I didn't want to lose my son," his father
said. "He felt strongly about what he was doing. I have to honor and support
that."

Adam Lucas grew up in a family where you had
to use the fingers on both hands to count all the relatives with military
experience. A wiry kid with a wide smile, Lucas had a black belt in tae
kwon do and could take you down quicker than a blink, his father remembered.

With Adam Lucas, it was always the Marines.
And when the family moved to Greensboro from Mississippi in 2002, they
bought a home in an area that allowed him to attend Northwest High School,
which had the only Navy Junior ROTC program at that time, his father said.

After graduating in 2004, Lucas spent nearly
two years in the Marines before leaving in March for his first tour in
Iraq.

Assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment,
he was stationed at Camp Blue Diamond, a Marine base in Iraq's Al Anbar
province.

He called his parents about three times --
the last on Mother's Day. He talked about the bad mosquitoes. And how he
wanted them to send vitamins and protein drinks. And, of course, the unrelenting
hot weather. But he believed in being there.

"Americans need to keep remembering Sept. 11
and quit bickering over the little things," his father remembered him saying.

He was due back in October and had planned
a military wedding with his fiancee at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia
in January. Another tour in Iraq awaited him six months later.

His family expected his body to arrive in Dover,
Delaware, on Saturday.

His body will be flown to Greensboro for a
a memorial service tentatively scheduled for Wednesday afternoon. Full
details were incomplete Saturday.

On Thursday, plans call for Lucas to be buried
with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery, something he
always wanted, they said.

Sitting in his living room Saturday, Kevin
Lucas tried to do his son proud, showing no tears or emotion. Occasionally
he would buckle, and his wife, standing nearby, would take over.

The father had agreed to interview after interview
Saturday, and his face showed weariness.

At one point, he let out a deep sigh.

"I don't know what else to say."
Wednesday, May 31, 2006Memorial for fallen Marine on Saturday

A memorial service for Marine Lance Corporal
Kevin A. Lucas of Greensboro, North Carolina, is scheduled for Saturday
afternoon, officials confirmed Wednesday.

Lucas, 20, was killed May 26, 2006, while in
combat in Iraq. His remains are scheduled to arrive in Greensboro on Friday
afternoon. The service, which is open to the public, is scheduled for 1
p.m. at Calvary Church at 1655 Pleasant Ridge Road in Greensboro. Arrangements
are being handled by Forbis & Dick Guilford Chapel.

Marines from Greensboro will provide military
honors during the service, which will also be attended by Marines from
Lucas' unit, the Camp Lejeune-based 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment.

On Tuesday, Lucas will be interred at Arlington
National Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to
the Children of Fallen Soldiers Relief Fund, P.O. Box 3968, Gaithersburg,
MD, 20885-3968 or at www.cfsrf.org. Condolences can be sent through the
funeral home at www.forbisanddick.com.

Marine Lance Corporal Kevin Adam Lucas of
Greensboro, North Carolina, will be buried Tuesday with full military honors
at Arlington National Cemetery. Lucas, 20, was killed while on patrol in
Anbar province, Iraq.

And in a scene that has become common at funerals
for Iraq war dead, picketers will travel across the country to carry signs
saying "Thank God for Dead Soldiers" and "God Hates Fags" in protest nearby.

But for the first time, the picketers from
Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas, will be restricted by new legislation
that limits protests at national cemeteries. President Bush signed the
bill into law last week.

Congregation member Margie Phelps said that
the new law won't interfere with the church's message that "America is
doomed" for tolerating homosexuals.

"What people haven't grasped is, we don't care
what they think," she said.

The group plans to picket all 122 national
cemeteries in upcoming months while abiding by the specific provisions
of the law.

Westboro Baptist Church is an independent congregation
of roughly 80 members, mostly blood or marriage relatives of 76-year-old
pastor Fred Phelps, who founded Westboro in 1955. Margie Phelps is one
of Fred's 13 children.

To spread its anti-gay message, the church
has held thousands of protests nationwide, citing Old Testament verses
to justify its views.

The church first drew national notoriety in
1998 by picketing the funeral of Matthew Shepard, a gay University of Wyoming
student who was murdered in a hate crime.

But the backlash surrounding the military funeral
protests - church members say that the Iraq war is God's punishment for
America's sins - is greater than any of the group's previous protests.

At least 27 states have passed or are considering
laws to restrict picketing at soldiers' funerals in a direct response to
Phelps-led protests. On Memorial Day, Bush signed the Respect for America's
Fallen Heroes Act. It bars protests at national cemeteries within 300 feet
of a cemetery's entrance and within 150 feet of a road into the cemetery
from 60 minutes before to 60 minutes after a funeral.

Those violating the act face up to a $100,000
fine and a year in prison. The federal restrictions were limited to national
cemeteries for jurisdictional and legal reasons.

The protests also have spawned a counter-group,
the Patriot Guard Riders, which was formed in Kansas to assist grieving
families and shield them from protesters. Less than a year old, the group
now claims 36,000 members nationwide. Virginia riders will be with the
Lucas family on Tuesday, though the organization now coordinates with military
funerals regardless of whether they're being picketed.

Said Patriot Guard rider Paul Fischer: "99.9999
percent of the time, the protests are irrelevant. We're there to show respect
and honor."

But the protests' increased attention also
has raised the potential for violence. Last month, five people in Delaware
were arrested for allegedly scuffling with picketers at a military funeral.

And some of the states' anti-picket laws are
being challenged by the American Civil Liberties Union, which also opposes
the federal bill.

Meanwhile, Westboro faces its own legal challenges.
A York, Pennsylvania, father of a Marine killed in Iraq last March filed
a federal lawsuit on Monday against Westboro Baptist, seeking more than
$75,000 in damages for alleged privacy intrusion and defamation related
to the picketing of his son's funeral.

Margie Phelps called the lawsuit "frivolous."

She added that the church plans to follow the
federal law and keep its distance from the Lucas funeral on Tuesday. Westboro
doesn't need civil disobedience to preach - only attention, she said.

And Westboro has no shortage of that, she noted.

"The press, the Patriot Guard and the president
are delivering our message in spite of themselves," she said.

The Marine's father, Kevin Lucas, said that
the unwanted controversy wouldn't distract from the service, which follows
his son's wishes.

"He said if anything happened to him, that
was where he wanted to be buried," he said.

As for the protesters, he said, "I think every
one of them ought to be arrested."

EDITORIAL NOTE: Amen to Kevin Lucas'
comments.

6 June 2006:

The funeral of Lance Corporal. Kevin Lucas
went smoothly at Arlington National Cemetery today, as protesters from
Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka picketed far from the service and finished
their demonstration before the service began.

But the picketers from Pastor Fred Phelps'
church said they got the attention they sought, despite new federal restrictions
on pickets.

A federal law passed to limit their protests
at military funerals "was a feel-good measure that changes nothing," said
Shirley Phelps-Roper, a Phelps daughter. All four picketers were members
of the Phelps family.

"That's going to sink in with people, and they're
going to be angry," Phelps-Roper said.

The four picketers, who were stationed outside
the main entrance to Arlington National Cemetery, were joined by about
a dozen counter-demonstrators, another dozen media members and a line of
Washington, D.C. Park Police K-9 unit squad cars.

The protesters were at Arlington to protest
Lucas' funeral. Westboro members have been protesting military funerals
in recent months, calling the deaths God's retribution for America's acceptance
of homosexuality.

The funeral of the 20-year-old Marine killed
in Iraq in May was the first military funeral Westboro picketed since new
federal restrictions on military funeral protests became law.

Lucas family members did not comment to media
at the private ceremony. At no point did family members have to witness
the picket, although many who attended the funeral drove past it.

N.C. Marine 'Wanted to Serve'Lance Corporal, 20, Was Killed While on Patrol
in IraqBy Leef SmithCourtesy of the Washington PostWednesday, June 7, 2006

The care packages from family were still en
route to Iraq when enemy fire took the life of the intended recipient:
Marine Lance Corporal Kevin Adam Lucas.

The 20-year-old from Greensboro, North Carolina,
was killed May 26, 2006, while conducting a security patrol in Anbar province,
authorities said.

The
flag from Lance Corporal Kevin Adam Lucas's coffin is presented to his
parents, Sandra and Kevin Lucas, by
Master Sergeant Barry Baker. "He felt strongly about what he was doing,"
the Marine's father told the hometown newspaper.

Family members, who learned the news three
days before Memorial Day, gathered with other mourners yesterday at Arlington
National Cemetery to remember a son, a fellow Marine and a friend.

"Adam at a very young age knew he wanted to
serve his country," Lieuetnant Ron Nordan, a Navy chaplain, told the dozens
of people who assembled at graveside to honor Lucas -- known to family
and friends as "Adam."

Many bowed their heads, wiping away tears,
as a bugler played taps. Marines who were friends of Lucas's assembled
behind the family and saluted as a seven-member rifle squad fired three
volleys to honor the fallen Marine.

Also attending the service were more than 40
denim and leather-clad members of the Patriot Guard Riders, motorcycle
enthusiasts who attend burials of fallen service members to shield grieving
families from the intrusion of antiwar protesters.

Although the solemnity of yesterday's service
was not broken, protesters from a small, independent Kansas church, Westboro
Baptist, stationed themselves outside the cemetery waving placards. In
recent months, members of the congregation have stirred anger across the
nation, picketing with inflammatory signs at funerals for troops killed
in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In an interview last week with the Greensboro
News-Record, Lucas's parents, Kevin and Sandra Lucas, recalled a proud
Marine who was in Iraq to get a job done.

"I didn't want to lose my son," Kevin Lucas
told the paper. "He felt strongly about what he was doing. I have to honor
and support that."

According to news reports, many members of
the family have served in the military. Lucas's family moved to Greensboro
from Mississippi in 2002. While attending Northwest Guilford High School
in Greensboro, Lucas joined the Navy Junior ROTC.

"He ate, breathed and slept the military,"
said David Lambert, who was Lucas's mechanical drafting teacher at Northwest
Guilford and was interviewed by phone yesterday. "He was a great kid. He
was genuine. There was no pretense about him."

Lucas enlisted in the Marines after graduation
and was deployed in March for his first tour of Iraq. According to the
News-Record, Lucas talked to his parents for the last time on Mother's
Day. It was hot and the mosquitoes were bad, he told them, but he stood
behind the work the Marines were doing there.

Lucas was due to return to the United States
in the fall and planned to get married early next year, according to news
reports. After his death, a Web page honoring Lucas was put up on the Northwest
Guilford High Web site.

"You are the kind of young person that I want
in my country," reads a tribute from Hawk Lindley, who was one of Lucas's
ROTC instructors. "Memorial Day will be even sadder from now on. Time moves
swiftly and soon I will be called for that last and most holy of quarters
for muster. After I account to my God for my life I would like to see you.
Please wait for me."